Increasingly, Americans are surviving cancer, but ending up with a long list of medical problems afterwards. These problems, which include premature menopause, sexual issues and heart disease, are promoting the development of a new medical specialty known as survivorship. A recent study found that 62 percent of cancer survivors treated between 1970 and 1986 had one chronic condition, and 28 percent had a severe or life-threatening complication. Survivorship programs are treating cancer as a chronic illness like diabetes, helping patients manage the often complex sequence of complications which can arise between relapses or even long after a patient is in remission. Many of these patients don't need a cancer specialist, but instead, someone who's familiar with the other problems cancer patients face. Such specialists are trained to screen for condition-specific risks.
To learn more about this trend:
- read this New York Times article (reg. req.)
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